folk medicine of bosnia and herzegovina

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Raif Esmerović

Folk medicine ofBosnia andHerzegovina -healing withmagical formula

Illyrian religion

By its natural wealth Bosnia andHerzegovina was always full of forests andnumerous water streams, which by itself, ina very logical manner, predetermined thereligious system of the Illyrians, this systemwas entirely dedicated to worshiping naturalforces. This is why Tana and Vidasus becamesymbols, but also personifications of thehuman environment, and as such theysignified the strength of nature andeverything that nature offers to mankind.With them, of course, comes an entire

pantheon of other gods and goddesses suchas Bindu, Tur, Anzotik, or the divine serpentBoa, whose roles in the religious systemwere not negligible. But, as a starting pointfor further observation when researchingways of healing by our forefathers the mostimportant are Vidasus, Tana, Tur and Bind.

Thana

What we need to stress at the beginningis the fact that thanks to these deities of ourforefathers, today we can be proud that wehave a durable cult of healing, which has adeep reach in the ancient times.Documented data from the NationalMuseum in Sarajevo present examples ofcontinued ritual practice of visiting streamsand washing the diseased, which ends inleaving a piece of clothing or food next tothe stream or even throwing a coin inside ofit, which is without a doubt a preservedtradition of respecting and seeking helpfrom god Bind, which our forefathers theIllyrians worshiped as a deity of streams. Inpagan Bosnia he was offered animalsacrifices, usually of smaller animals such asgoats, which was latter exchanged bysymbolic gifts.

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Raif Esmerović


Illyrian religion



Thana


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Raif Esmerović


Illyrian religion



Thana


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Altar with dedication to Bindus Neptune fromPrivilica, Territorial Museum in Sarajevo

Cult of Bind1 was especially dominant inthe part of Bosnia, which was dominated byJapod's, as well as boarder parts of theCroatia at that time, especially in Lika,where it was practiced until the middle ofthe previous century. Belief that springwater, especially the one taken beforesunrise, medicinal and suitable for healing isanother segment of the mentioned cult.

Tana and Vidasus

Sculptures which depict god Vidasus,sometimes accompanied by Tana, show himencircled by girls dancing or in the form ofnymphs, water faeries. Beside the datawhich confirm that the Bosnian folk werefamiliar with faeries from ancient times, thisinformation is extremely important forfurther study about correlation with personswhich came into direct contact with faeriesand gained healing powers as well as textsof spells. From Bosnian tradition we knowthat faeries are skilled in healing withmedicinal herbs and spring water in which,according to legends, they would bathe.

1 See: http://magic.bosnianforum.com/t172-cult-of-the-god-bindu

Altar of Vidasus and Thana from Topusko,Archaeological Museum in Zagreb

What was especially interesting tonotice when gathering materials for thisresearch are individual ways of initiation ofcertain persons into the world of magic andhealing and for which it is impossible not tofind a direct link with Tana, Vidasus or evena snake, holly totem of our forefathers.

The figure of the goddess Thana (Diana of lead), Mošunj(the former Roman city of Bistue Nova) near Vitez, centralBosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnian folk believes that spells are agift from spirits, especially faeries, which isevidenced by numerous testimonies aboutinitiation. A large part of older women in thepast that used to work with spells wereilliterate and they used to live in villages.Their initiation into supernatural was alwaysbased on weird dreams in which young andbeautiful girls used to appear, usually three,they would teach the chosen womanhealing formulas in the dream. There aredifferent examples. According to sayings ofa well-known witch from Velika Kladušacalled Ćanka, an unknown man and womanappeared in her dream, clad in white

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Tana and Vidasus







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Tana and Vidasus







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clothes. They pulled her by her large toe and"woke her". Then they told her that theychose her to heal and help people. Anotherwoman received her initiation into theworld of magic by a snake bite. Namely, atone time while she was out working in thefield she got tired and she laid down to rest.Without realising she fell asleep and whenshe woke up she felt pain in her lips. As soonas she came home she saw that her lipswere swollen and dark. She quickly went toa doctor who determined that she wasbitten by a snake. It wouldn't have been asensational event if she hadn't felt that she"knew" strange things and that suddenly sheknew how to perform love magic and curepeople of it.

Vidasus or Vidas

Cult of god Tur

In folk religion of Bosnia andHerzegovina, which is based on Illyriantraditional beliefs, some segments of theBosnian god Tur were preserved thanks tothe cult of spells (magical formulas); inBosnian mythology it was believed that Turwas a gigantic black bull who held earth onhis back. The name Tur itself probablycomes from poturiti, onaj koji potura, držinešto ili pridržava (plant, someone whoplaces under, upholds or holds something)which fully corresponds to the functionwhich is ascribed to this mythologicalbeing.Though according to the writings ofethnologists the belief about the giganticbull who is holding up earth is only foundamong the Bosnian people, some segmentsof that cult are present in the magicalpractice of all three people in our country.We are talking about healing rituals of cattlewhere women or men who perform theserituals preform a spring ritual oftransmission of divine power of Tur in orderto gain his blessing or power of healing.

Namely, in folk religion of Bosnia thesnail is a miniature representation of thebull Tur since it possesses attributes whichsymbolise the bull: horns and house on hisbody which symbolises earth. It is no lessinteresting to mention that for the ritual oftouching, a dark coloured snail is oftensought, since the bull Tur was described asbeing of a black skin or hair, therefore theBosnian people in the northwest part ofBosnia call him Garonja (black). Significanceof touching the snail is the magicalconnection with earth, in which Tur lives,otherwise in Bosnian mythology is the onlyculprit for causing earthquakes, and calmingTur, personification of the earth's strength,which is clearly visible in the formula whichfollows ritual touching of the snails horns:"Ustuk biče, moje biče jače!" (stand downbull, my strength is bigger than the bull's).

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When a woman from the surroundingarea of Mostar would gain the power ofhealing livestock, she would use her indexfinger of her right hand to touch the hornsof a dark snail three times, pulling her fingerdown his body, backwards, uttering thefollowing spell:

Go back, go back,

may your origin be

unknown, go back!

From God the cure

and my labour recovery.

Bosnian:

Stu na se!

Stu natrag,

ne znalo ti se za trag.

Stu na se.

Od Boga derman a od mog iladž!

As we can see from the examples,touching the horns of the snail is nothingbut a magical imitation of touching horns ofTur, whose entire strength rests in them,and using that force to heal, since that is theenergy of earth or Grand Mother. It isbelieved that after such a transfer of powerfrom the snail onto a woman or man, aperson can use their acquired powers tocure throughout the entire year.

A diseased animal is brought to a rockwhich is firmly fixed into the ground, i.e. itnever moved from that place, which isalluding to a tombstone, then the womanwhich is performing the healing ritual usesher index finger to make three circlesaround the diseased part of the body andutters: "stu natrag!" (an abbreviationof "come, tread, move"). She then spits onher index finger uttering: "Ptuj, u živac, ukamen, stu natrag!" she repeats this threetimes.

Right index finger in folk medicine is thefinger of healing and is brought intoconnection with the finger of Hazrat Alija,who is always depicted with a raised indexfinger as a symbol of god's wisdom but alsoblessing. This is no coincidence since HazratFatima and her husband Hazrat Ali in folkmedicine, especially in Iran and Turkey, areregarded as a couple who have ascribedmystic properties to them, among which arehealing properties. In north-western part ofBosnia, in Velika Kladuša and Cazin, rightindex finger is represented in the prayer tothe new moon which is pointed towards themoon after uttering five short (smaller)surah, then a spell is uttered with which oneaims to renew vitality and beauty of thebody.

According to traditional belief for thismagical transmission one would chose theperiod from the beginning of May until themiddle of the month which is nocoincidence, namely, it was a custom in thepast to slaughter a bull (once people used to

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Go back, go back,

may your origin be

unknown, go back!

From God the cure


Bosnian:

Stu na se!

Stu natrag,


Stu na se.






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Go back, go back,

may your origin be

unknown, go back!

From God the cure


Bosnian:

Stu na se!

Stu natrag,


Stu na se.






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say: "We'll slaughter a bull for the first ofthe May!"), which was a symbol in theformer Yugoslav republic of labour day,however, that practice of slaughteringanimals, i.e. sacrificing a bull on our territoryis an ancient practice and stems directlyfrom Illyrians. All of this of course has itsroots on the cult of Tur and mother earth orgoddess Grand Mother.

Actually, today's holiday St. George'sday, which is observed on May 6th amongthe Bosnian orthodox Christians, is not aChristian holiday at all, nor any other, it hasbeen taken over from paganism. In this datawe can find an answer as to why Bosnianpeople, former members of the Church ofBosnia before the advent of Christianity,were pagans, therefore it is normal andlogical to conclude that they, like otherpeople, did not fully renounce their oldreligion. Instead they continued under theveil of Christianity and later Islam tocelebrate the holidays of their paganforefathers. That's why among the Bosnianfolk some so called "Christian" holidayswere marked (observed) but not in areligious but magical way i.e. the originalpagan way, during which destiny wasforetold, spells uttered and livestockprotected from evil spirits and diseases2.

2 Of course, irony is that this argument was one ofthe main claims of the hegemonic and militant policy ofSerbia against the Bosniaks, as if they were Serbs whichconverted to Islam?! The question, of how is it possiblethat Serbs during the 500 year rule of the Ottomanempire haven't converted to Islam, is interesting, andthe alleged "Serbs" in BiH have converted?! Were the"Serbs" in BiH worst off than those in Serbia? And in theend there is the question how come did one and thesame people chose two different historical paths andrenounced their "holly orthodoxy" in favour of somewild Ottomans?! A criminal organisation such as SANU(The Serbian Academy of Science and Arts) will nevergive the right answers to these questions since theywould seriously threaten the foundation of theircarefully constructed Nazi policy with which the Serbianpolitical structure has been inspired for decades andwhose catastrophic consequences we felt during thenineties of the previous century, when the aggression onBiH started along with systematic ethnic cleansing. An

God Vidasus in Bosnian Stećak

Oral charms

In the culture of a people a lot ofattention is devoted to linguistics and allforms of literary expression such as lyric andepic poetry and drama, where symbolismand meaning of words get their strongestexpression. Not at all insignificant a part ofthat concept encompasses so called magicalprose based on a rhetoric form, which wecome across in all those segments which aretied to concepts of sorcery, spells, curses,blessing or invocations. To better fathom inthe meaning of the poetic expression amongthe Bosnian folk we need to pay attention toa forgotten form of love expressionbetween loved ones - ašikovanje (from theTurkish word ašk - love). In a conversationbetween two lovers stress was placed oningenuity, imagination when choosing wordsas well as their rhyme, which has the effectto stimulate a certain dose of excitementand elation, for example, a boy utters to agirl:

even greater irony of all of this is that those Serbs claimthat Bosniaks have been islamicized which means thatthey have killed their own people and executedgenocide. Actually, Bosniaks for the Serbian people areislamicized Serbs only when the Serbs want to performsome hegemonic plan, but this aggression actuallyshowed and proved that they don't believe this claimabout the Bosniaks. Since logically, if they thought it tobe true they wouldn't kill "their own people".

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When I see you in a tarboosh,

I go swoosh,

when I see you in a sleeveless coat,

like a quad in a coat,

when I see you in a hijab,

I go to an Imam in a mosque.

Bosnian:

Kad te vidim u fesiću,

čini mi se poletiću,

kad te vidim u ječermi,

k'o kadija u mešćemi (sudu),

kad te vidim u šamiji,

kajno hodžu u džamiji.

This modus operandi is recognisable inthe domain of love magic, to which girlswere inclined to for ages in Bosnia in orderto achieve a marriage covenant, throughrepetition of magical formulas which usuallyfollowed some simple actions. Namely, withthe help of love formulas the girls (lovebasma) tried to "call" their beloved to comeunder their window so they can lead longconversations i.e. in order to ašikovati.Besides, by the repetition of the formulasthey wanted to make themselves evenprettier, more attractive and desirable andin that manner influence the success of therelationship, with the emphasis on gettingmarried. An interesting article published inNovi Behar, from 1939 speaks about this.

When a boy frequently goes under agirl's window, his friends usually tease himwith that familiar utterance: "Have thebean's cracked?" With this joke they'retrying to signal to him that it is not love thatis drawing him near to her, but that thewoman used a love spell. Boys, of coursedon't believe in this much and whensomeone mentions bajanje (oral charms)they reject it as a joke but it really exists.

Bajanje is an old folk skill which ispopular among women, especially girls. Ithas the purpose to acquire and realize thosewishes which cannot be realized in a naturalway. If a girl is interested in a boy, and hedoesn't reciprocate or even if she is beingavoided by a boy she is in a relationshipwith, she then practices bajanje in order tostimulate feelings of love and desire. Evenmarried women abandoned by theirhusbands or disregarded by them arelooking for help in bajanje. If a woman or agirl is skilled in this type of magic, thensuccess will follow. A boy, pushed by anunknown force will start feeling suddendesire towards the girl and will be ready tomarry her, and a husband will return to hiswife which he previously abandoned or willchange his behaviour to become morecaring and gentle, firmly believing that he isdoing it on his own accord.

Before there was a much larger numberof girls or women which were skilled inbajanje. For a girl, which was versed in thisknowledge, this was a winning combination,since she could utter magical formulas andstay completely discrete. All other girls,which were not aware of this magicalknowledge needed to seek help from thosewomen which they thought would bediscrete. And moreover, they needed toentrust them with their most intimatedesires, which was probably not pleasant.Therefore these girls were helped bycousins, as the most reliable persons, andthere were cases when mothers themselvesperformed bajanje for their daughters.

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As in the past so too today, though to alesser extent, there are women that believein bajanje and who still practice it. They aremostly provocative women spoiled andcapricious, or single daughters which wantmen to please them and fulfil all theirwishes. There are those to whom this is theonly way to win over a man and get married.It is said among the people that they neverrest and always practice bajanje even whenthey go to sleep and when they wake up,when they perform house work and whenthey rest, it is even believed that theyrepeat magical formulas in their sleep.

Women are extremely prone tobelieving in the power of bajanje, while menare suspicious, though they are wary not tobecome victims of such magical practice.Young men though see a potential witch inevery girl. Therefore, if a woman offers acake to a man as customary, as a sing oflove, he will accept it out of courtesy, but hewill not eat it. Such cakes are usually givento children or to a friend, since it is believedthat bajanje has an effect on the personwhose name was mentioned during theincantation of the formula.

Qur'an strictly condemns bajanje. That'swhy god fearing and wholesome girls takecare not to practice that sin, and those thatperform bajanje hide it as the greatestsecret. If it is found out, namely, that a girlinvokes spells, a heavy taint will fall on herand she will be considered faulty, thisstigma cannot be cured over time, nomatter if she uses spells on her own or withthe help of another woman. Therefore it isunderstandable that it is difficult to findeven the smallest discoveries regarding thisskill. Secrets of bajanje are told andentrusted only to those that are closest andmost reliable. Others can only find outabout it if an old lady decides to mention itbefore she dies. (Novi Behar, 1939)

Probably because of that traditionalnorm among the Bosnian people there are

two dominant types of magical expressionbased on the usage of basma in love magicand basma for exorcism i.e. healing.

Basma

In oral magic according to classicdivision there are two forms of formula -basma and bajalica. Basma is a shorter form,usually with one or two verses, which has tobe repeated several times while bajalica is alonger textual form. Though more rare thereare bajalice with more than twenty verses.Though some anthropologists are prone ofconnecting basma with basna, I wouldn'tagree with such a claim. It is obvious thatthe idea for this comparison was based onthe similarity of the words, we are literallytalking about the change of letter M into Nor vice versa, but when we analyse themeaning of basna i.e. that it is in itsformulation "a short story in prose or versewhose main characters are animals", thenwe come to a conclusion that basna has noconnection to basma.

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Basma


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Basma


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But, there is a very interesting Persianword which mentioned in certain loveformulas and it is baht or luck, destiny.Namely, in any form, love or exorcist, withthe purpose of healing, basma has a task toinfluence on the present state or destinyand change i.e. allow luck in love (marriage)to a boy or girl or recovery to a diseased. Allthese actions are actually a desire tomagically try and influence the future, inorder for it to be positive, therefore it islogical to connect the origin of the wordbasma with the word bahat and not bring itin connection with basna. Similarly, weshouldn't forget to mention the folk namefor a fortune teller or witch - bahornica orbahorica, whose root comes from the wordbaht. In the end doesn't surprise if we recallthat even the concept of magic practice i.e.čaranje (from čare - mesmerize, fascinate),come from the Persian language.

Magical whisper

On the other hand, bajalica, in Englishlanguage the term magical whisper wouldmost closely be associated with the meaningof the word bajalica, which is uttered bywhispering like a basma, as a word thisdoesn't exist among the Bosnian people andinstead of bajati we say "naučiti" i.e. utter("ona uči ono svoje"(she utters her things) -uttering secret magical words, or when oneadvises a diseased to go to a woman whichhears magical formula: "idi kod nje neka tinauči, ona zna dobro učiti na vodu" ("go toher so she can utter her words, she canutter well with water")3. Probably that's whythe term bajati among the people is notinterpreted as an act of uttering magicalformulas but gossip, lying, which isconfirmed by the statement "neko o tebibaje! (someone is throwing spells at you) -

3 Today we come across an interesting statementwhich describes someone's success in some sphere oftheir life: -"ide mu k'o da mu je naučeno na vodu!" -"he's successful as if someone threw a spell on him!"

"someone is telling lies about you!"4.Women that use magical formulas (baju) arenot called bajarke instead they are calledstravarke, stravaruše or even just "baba"("idi kod te babe pa neka ti nauči"), which isa Bogomil heritage about the function whichwas performed by Baba, wife of the priestDid. During the middle ages up until theadvent of the Ottomans, when the Bogomilfaith was the dominant religion in BiH, cultof healing with medicinal herbs and waterwas emphatically present both in thedomain of the Bogomil priests which werecalled Didovi and their wives Babe. WhileDidovi were in charge of transmission ofreligious ideas and solving everydaydisputes, Babe dealt with healing usingherbs, water and magical words. It is knownthat they used bajanje from nežita, adisease which is manifested through pain inthe body and that the name nežit itself isactually of Bogomil origin. Similarly, incertain parts of BiH bajalice are calledbogomolje or shortened mole whichcertainly comes from the name bogumil.

Bajanje is an extremely interesting formof oral magic, connection of poetry andmagical symbolism, whose genesis datesfrom the period of paganism. As ancientinvocations and celebrations of god's wereexchanged for prayers from the Bible andQur'an in monotheism, magical formulasintended for chasing away evil spiritssuffered a similar faith, i.e. their contentremained pretty much the same with smalladditions of some Christian elements suchas mention of saints by name, Jesus Christ,Virgin Marry, cross or even the ending of themost appreciated verse from the Qur'an,surah El-Fatiha "Veledalin amin", invitationto "božiji emer" i.e. God's command, "božija

4 In the north-western part of Bosnia it is believedthat when someone's tongue itches that he is the targetof someone's bad mouthing, then that person, in orderto stop the negative propaganda, spits into fire threetimes and utters: "Ko baje u guzicu staje!" - "May theone that badmouths me go up the ass!" after which it isbelieved that the badmouthing will stop.

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hazma", beginning of certain chapters of theQur'an such as Elif lam mim, which receivedits shortened form such as Elzalif, etc. Incertain formulas the daughter of god'smessenger Muhammad is asked for help,Hazrat Fatima. This practice was taken overfrom the Ottomans, in whose cult adominant place was taken by Hazrat Fatimawith the emphasis on the power of herhands i.e. her hand:

This is not my hand,

this is the hand of Hazrat Fatima!

Bosnian:

Ovo nije moja ruka,

ovo je ruka

naše majke hazreti Fatime!

The word bajanje itself, usually presentin the Balkans, probably comes from thearea of south Caucasus primarily because ofthe word bayati which in Azerbaijan signifiesan ancient form of folk poetry or better sayfolk wisdom represented through verses.

Words - keys of destiny

Bosnian folk firmly believe in the powerof magical formulas (basme), which isperhaps best witnessed by the belief whichclaims that the entire earth rests on abasma, which is a direct connectionbetween Tur and magical formula, and the"dark earth", i.e. surface of the earth restson the words from surah Ihlas. This is whythese two segments are inseparable and assuch a perfect connection of paganism and

monotheism. Namely, before uttering anybasma, as the old and wise Bosnian womensuggest, one must initially utter surah Ihlas afew times, in order to summon god'sstrength, and only then one can utter amagical formula.

In parts of south-western Bosnia, stilltoday one can hear how allegedly, there is amysterious magical formula of extremepower, which if discovered and uttered by aman would allow him to rule over the world.This belief entails the question: isn't Tur(who holds earth on his back) in Bosnianmythology also the ruler of earth? Legendssay that when Tur shakes his ears anearthquake takes place, and on the daywhen he shakes his head it will be the endof days. Such a mythological concept is notformed by accident it is based on the beliefthat a man can rule over Tur, the one thatsymbolises the strength of the earth butalso destiny of the human race; only if mancan comprehend the greatest magicalformula of all - magical words which are thekeys of destiny and also rulers of theunderworld forces.

Connection of magical words and Turcan perhaps best be surmised by thisexample. Namely, according to folk belieffrom Cazin and Velika Kladuša earth isconnected by human speech, which can beconfirmed by this example; when a personstutters and cannot pronounce a certainword his interlocutor should stomp his footon the ground and "free his speech" so hecan end the sentence or word. Or a girl atthe end of a magical formula places herpalms on the surface of the earth and talksto her with these words: "Dark earth, by godmother, help me..." Analysing such abeginning of the formula, which followsphysical contact with the earth, it is easy toconclude that behind the term "dark earth"none other than Tur is hidden or Garonja(black) and in the rest of the formula thegoddess of earth i.e. Grand Mother.

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All in all, this magical representation isnot an isolated case but one of manyexamples from our tradition which perfectlytestifies about the segments of a veryimportant cult of earth, primarily agricultureand animal husbandry, whose strength ispersonified in the form of the gigantic bullTur. With his horns he is undoubtedly thesymbol of pagan Bosnia, and one couldconclude the male principle of the GrandMother. Besides, analysing the indigenousbeliefs we can conclude and understandreligious-magical concept of our forefatherswhich, as we see it, believed that one couldappease heavenly forces by mysticalformulas and in the end rule over them.Such a fact makes this investigative work,which constructively reveals the importanceof magical formulas and their mythologicalbackground in folk medicine, even moreexciting and informative.

Nine demons of disease

Usage of exorcist formulas (Greekexorkiza - beseech, exorkismos -incantation), in folk rituals of healing it isvery old has its source in paganism. Namely,in ancient times it was firmly believed thatdiseases of the body are caused by evildemons with their activity, throughspellbound eyes, aggression or entering thehuman body, therefore the idea thatmagical formulas can force a demon toleave the human body and return physicaland mental balance to a person, wascreated. In the beginning only shamans andwizards practiced these rituals, and later thepractice was taken over by priests andcertain persons from the people, whichclaimed that they were contacted by higherforces with a certain task.

For a large part of magical formulas,especially exorcist ones, it is suggested thatthey be repeated nine times, especially ifone is looking for a stronger effort in

dissolving the disease. In folk medicine ofBiH there are a lot of such examples, like theone that a person can have the ritual of leadmelting repeated nine times, where duringevery individual ritual the lead will bemolten and poured into the water ninetimes. Of course, every time a magicalformula for chasing away evil will berepeated. Nine is the final number, afterthat the diseased will be either cured or thedisease will be considered to be chronic. It isinteresting to mention that number nineoften appears as a symbol of the demon ofdisease, which is demonstrated throughvarious examples of belief that there arenine types of stomach illnesses ("from ninehands"), nine spells and diseases, nine son'sof the demon mother Sijerma, nine winds,etc. In accordance with this it is necessary toperform a detailed study of the symbologyof the number nine, in order to understandits meaning and role in magical rituals ofhealing.

In mythological tradition on life, i.e. treeof life, nine demons keep assaulting it;they're sometimes leaders of large armies ofevil beings. As nine is the number of theGrand Mother, giver of life, it is very evidentthat these demons represent a type of adivine opposition which has the function ofendangering order of life at all times. Whatis interesting is that these demons arealways female and as such can represent analter ego of the Grand Mother herself. Inmodern psychoanalysis demons whichattack pregnant women and their childrencould be placed under the concept ofpostnatal depression or, better to say,psychosis. Let's not forget to point out thatamong the Bosnian folk there is a belief thatthere are "nine types of mothers" but onlyone of them is good - the one that is takingcare of her child.

All those traditional prophylactic beliefsand rituals about pregnant women and hernewborn among the Bosnian folk are aninheritance of ancient pagan beliefs based

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on an epic conflict of dark and light forces.From the ancient Babylonian myths,Mesopotamia or Egypt the story of thecreation of the world was alwaysmentioned, when from the allegoricalconflict of Good and Evil and ensuing chaos,law and order are created, and with that thenecessary conditions appear for life onearth. Evil was always presented in the formof a woman or a hermaphrodite and thatmythological idea will dominate all stages ofhuman history and it will receive itsculmination with the advent of monotheism,which will spark unheard of killing of womenunder the ludicrous accusation that they are- witches5.

But, through observation of the role offemale demons in folklore and mythologicalbeliefs we can see that such a sociallyacceptable concept of their role is the resultof a certain historical aversion. It is,primarily, based on an unchangeableattitude that a woman is the master of life,which in a patriarchal society directlyendangers the superiority of men, and thatthe decision of child birth will depend on herdecision and behaviour. That's whymonotheism wants to gain complete controlover the woman and her body, in order toensure its survival, and women aretraditionally encouraged to give birth, andthey are constantly suggested that they arecreated to serve men. That forcedsubmission of the woman towards man isactually the result of fear and feeling ofinferiority which men have towards womenbecause of their natural ability for creationand control of life, which men don't have.

5 Although Kron was represented in Greekmythology as the father who eats his own children, itnever had any serious influence in creating amythological representation about an evil male demonwhich kills children, such case would always beconsidered to be an isolated case, and often, wasbrought into connection with the animalistic dispositionin humans, comparing such act with the killing of thecubs by some male animals.

In a worse position were women whichdidn't give birth, they were usuallyconsidered to be evil beings or witches.Namely, one can notice hatred of thecommunity towards women which wereinfertile or old, which didn't havereproductive powers, and as such theywere, allegedly, filled with hatred towardschildren, which is best illustrated bynumerous stories where the evil witch eatschildren. Bosnian traditions were noexception in which witches were portrayedin a similar fashion6.

In Bosnian mythology witches have eightforms; as Otrovnica she poisons people'sblood, in the form of Krvopilica she wouldrink people's blood at night, Strava causescramps in children, Kuga - spreads, whileclad in white, the disease pestilence fromone place to the other, Činilica - causesmental diseases, when she is in the form ofMore she attacks people at night, sitting ontheir chest, stopping their breathing, when adiseased gets a high fever and startshallucinating, then he was probablyattacked by Tvora, and if he is unlucky in

6 In mythological stories two female demons arementioned, Sijerma and Resma, for which legends claimthat they are "king's wives and the biggest witches",which have certain similarities with Umm al Sibyan andEl Hamma, female Jinn from Islamic mythology, whichare also considered princesses of the Jinn world butwitches as well. Their role is to attack pregnant womenand small children, especially boys. It is believed thatSijermi is actually the daughter of the Bosnian kingHerceg Stjepan, a Bogomil, which was a witch and whichknew lycanthropy, which she used to slaughter sheep tolocal inhabitants in the form of a wolf.

"When Pope Pius II took the seat of St. Peter in theVatican, he to tried to uproot the Bogomil, to destroytheir sanctuary, which they found in the land of kingHerceg Stjepan. In 1460 he sent his cardinal legate toHerceg Stjepan, to forbid him from receiving thefollowers of the heretic Bogomil church in his land, buthe didn't succeed with his plan. Political events in Bosniaand Herzegovina diverted attention from religiousquestions because of the increasing danger whichthreatened Christianity in the form of the Ottomans, andHerceg Stjepan die as a Bogomil" (Epigraphic hyphensfrom Bosnia and Herzegovina, GZM, nr. 1889/01, pp. 65,01/01/1889)

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love and is always fighting with others, hebecame the victim of Mraza.

Bogomil demon of disease

One of the grand authorities of Bogomilreligion is a priest called Jeremiah(Jeremija), for which many historianspresumed that he could have been thefamed Bogomil preiest, founder ofBogomilsm. But, what is certain is thatJeremiah was indeed a Bogomil, and thiswas confirmed to us by Atanasij, a Jerusalemmonk. Without a doubt, we are talkingabout a very interesting historical person, anextraordinary mind and the biggest religiousauthority in this part of Europe and wecould easily call him the Balkan Zarathustra.Jeremiah is credited with authorship over anumber of popular, but forbidden works,but today it is obvious that many of thosebooks had other Bogomil authors. In Russiaall those books were called by a collectivename "Bulgarian basma (spell)" and theywere extremely popular among the folk,which can also be discerned from theinscriptions of the Belarus translation byIohannes Damascenus from the 16th

century, in which the translator complains:"We haven't even translated the tenthhonourable book of our teachers, becauseof the laziness and neglect of our nobility;and additionally the so called teachers ofour century are entertained by Bulgarianbasma, Bulgarian magical formulas, orbetter to say, old wives foolery, they readthese things and laud them".

That the Bogomil religion left a deeptrace in Bosnian tradition is evident fromnumerous examples, and some can befound through this analysis. By investigatingavailable data about Jeremiah and his booksI discovered another Bogomil belief in

Bosnia about the demons of disease.Namely, the Bulgarian folk believed in a typeof dangerous witches, or better to say,female demons which attack humans invarious ways. They were called Tresavice.According to the writing of Jeremiah theywere daughters of Irud and they were sevenin number. Among the Russians, whichlatter took this belief, those demons were12 in total.

In the Russian version of Jeremiah'sexorcist formula (basma) this text ismentioned: "There is a stone pillar in thered sea (in the original basma: Mount Sinai),apostle Sisinij sits on the pillar and observeshow the sea has been agitated and how itrises up to the sky and twelve long hairedwomen are coming out of it (in the original:seven). Those women said: We areTresavice, daughters of the king Irod". HollySisinij asked them: "cursed devils, why didyou come here?" They replied: "We came totorture the human kind; whomever interestsus we will follow and torture him: whooversleeps the morning prayer, doesn't prayto God, doesn't respect holidays and eatsand drinks early in the morning, he is ourfavourite! Holly Sisinij prayed to god: God,God! Save the human race from thesedamned devils. Christ sent him two angels,Sihail and Anos and four evangelists. Theystarted beating the Tresavice with four ironrods, causing them three thousand woundsa day." In the rest of the basma the tortureddemons revealed their names and ways inwhich they torture people: Treseja, Ognjeja,Ledeja, Gnjeteja, Ginuša, Gluheja, Lomeja,Puhnjeja, Žuteja, Krkuša, Gledeja andNeveja.

But, in contrast to Russian, Bosnian folkmedicine mentions a total of seven femaledemons: Mraza, Tvora, Otrovnica, Činilica,Krvopilica, Strava and Mora, of which, eachin their own way tortures a man. However,only a few exorcist formulas were keptabout a few demons such as the ones

13

against Mora or Strava, while for others, fornow, I didn't manage to find any valid data.

Nežit or poganica

Nežit is also another type of dangerousdemon of disease against which the Bogomilpriest Jeremiah revealed exorcist formulasthrough which he emphasizes the dualisticbattle of good and evil, with the goal ofreleasing the human body i.e. healing. Oneof those formulas reads:

Nežit went from the dry sea, while Jesuswent from the sky, they met and Jesus toldhim: "where are you going, Nežit? Nežitreplied: "Sir, I'm going into a human's head,to drink his brain, brake his jaw, bite histeeth, bend his neck and deafen his ears,blind his eyes, stuff his nose, spill his blood.Jesus told him: "go back, Nežit, into adesolate valley and desert, find a deer headand move into it, etc."

(This is an original text of exorcist formulasagainst Nežit as written by Bogomil Jeremiah).

After the basma has been uttered onewould continue with the religious prayers7

7 It is easy to discern from the name "Bulgarian basma"why it was regarded in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a verypowerful formula, for which it was claimed that it "travelledthroughout the entire world" and that even planet Earth isstanding on top of it. All these beliefs are actually inheritancefrom all those things which Jeremiah preached and wroteabout. Similarly, the practice of healing with basma is anintegral part of folk medicine which is based on the teachings ofBogomils, which is in a way testified by the complete lack of the

until all the negative effects of this demonhas disappeared. As we can see from theabove text of the basma, the meetingbetween Jesus and Nežit is described,where the demon reveals ways in which hewill torture humans, while Jesus discourageshim and tells him to inhabit a deer's head,etc. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in allplaces where Bogumils lived, the belief inNežit has been preserved, over time Nežitwas beginning to be called poganica, we willdiscuss this later.

Nežit or Poganica - demondisease

According to etymology the name nežitand poganica have an interesting origin.Nežit is a term which comes from the term"neither alive nor dead", because of thestate the person is in which is afflicted bythis disease, while poganica comes from theterm pogan(sordid) or unclean, or evenpagan, i.e. we could look for the origin ofpoganica in the demons function from theancient times, which the demon actuallyrepresents, namely an evil spirit which insome ancient time in the religious history ofour region, represented one of thenumerous dieties.

Undeniably the belief in nežit waspresent in each territory where at someperiod during the middle ages Bogomilslived or even if their religion was present inthat area. Therefore, for example, inHerzegovina and a part of Dalmatia, it wasbelieved that this disease appears mostlythrough unexpected pain in human limbs,while there is no visible wound. If the

usage of the term bajalica or bajanje. This is why the termbasma itself could be translated as a Bogomil prayer or Bogomilformula. And in the end, no less important to mention thatBogomil priests uttered religious prayers in the healing rituals,which completely coincides with the traditional practice ofhealing formulas in BiH as well as in the terms "uči", "učiti",which are used to utter formulas (prouči basmu/utter a basma),but also prayers (prouči sure/utter a surah).

13


Nežit or poganica











13


Nežit or poganica











14

diseased feels weakness and dizziness, thediagnosis is, without a doubt, poganica.

Folk belief from all parts of BiH coincidein the belief that poganica manifests in amysterious and secret way, usually as amanifestation of spellbound eyes, evil gaze,black magic or by a person accidentally"stepping" on it. During one of theenumerated extreme cases an evil spirit ofdisease enters into a human and "throughblood" attacks the person, or better to say,"travels" through the body, which isidentical to folk description of how poganicacan appear on any place on the body. That'swhy, similarly, it is believed that poganicaoriginates from a hematoma, place where"blood has gathered".

According to some specific symptoms,poganica can even be characterized as animaginary illness, since it is demonstrated bya weird, even phantom pain, whichsuddenly and unexpectedly appears. But, inorder to remove the veil of mysticism, weneed to studiously fathom in all itrepresents in folk medicine, how it isdetected and cured. According to thesymptoms which follow poganica has themost congruence with rheumatism(Rheumatismus) and gout (Greek, ostealgia),since it is manifested in acute pain, usuallyin the bones of the arms and legs, neck butalso the head.

What is interesting to mention is thefact that poganica is sometimes used toname diseases for which people cannot findan obvious and visible cause. In Bosnia,since the old days, it is claimed that onedisease, if treated on time, carries with itanother, often more dangerous, disease. Aclassic example can be found, in thetraditional fear that individual wounds onthe child's body won't become inflamed andresult in two inflammations, or more often,that a hematoma (uboj) doesn't transforminto a poganica. This archaic belief is theproduct of mythological belief of pagan

Bosnia when the belief that wounds onhuman bodies, especially ones that haveblood oozing out of them, attract evil spiritsof disease and stimulate them to attack thediseased through them.

Nine stravarke - nine poganice

What is interesting to mention is thepronounced dualistic of this diseaseexpressed through sexual infection, namely,in the original interpretation nežit is thename of the male sex while poganica isfemale, like its two other forms: Sijerma andMetalja. However, in middle Bosnia wecome across a specifically male name for thedisease - udarac, which brings us to itsorigin. From all this we get an impression ofconfusion but probably we are seeing amixture of beliefs into two diseases i.e.Tresavica, female demon and Nežit a maledemon, because of insufficient informationabout Bogomil beliefs of those generationsthat lived during the time of Ottomanoccupation of Bosnia.

Besides a few terms the specificity ofthis disease is that it manifest differentlywhich caused a divide in the curing itself andis therefore entailed that it doesn't belongto the line of work of every stravarka.Therefore one of the most important rulessuggests that the diseased needs to comeinto contact with nine persons whichpractice healing8, in order to satisfy the

8 According to traditional belief in BiH it is recommendedthat a diseased passes through "numerous hands" i.e. a fewhealers, in order to find a person which can help him.Simultaneously, by visiting a few doctors one is aiming atweakening the disease. A ritual in which a diseased sufferingfrom fear or magical influence is still practiced today, namelythe person needs to visit three stravarke while each of themmust belong to a different religion - Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox. Though it is a paradox since Orthodox Christians and CatholicChristians belong to Christianity, constant antagonism betweenthese two religious directions has brought to discursive termthat we are talking about two religions?! An even greaterparadox is the traditional Christian appropriation of Judaism,which actually doesn't recognise Jesus and doesn't want to haveanything to do with that religion. It is interesting to mention

15

classic belief in existence of nine types9 ofpoganica which is why it is said: "poganice isof nine hands". Since the person doesn'tknow which of the nine grandmas or ninestravarke10 can successfully exorcise thatspecific poganica which afflicts the person,he must visit all of them, until he reachesthe one which has power over that specificpoganica. This means, each of them rulesover a specific kind of poganica and all thewhile each of them has their specific healingmethod If, even after the ninth grandma, aperson doesn't find a cure for his disease,then it is concluded that we're not dealingwith a poganica but another type ofaffliction.

Because of this stravarka initially tests ifthe poganica is hers, and she does this byisolating herself from others in order toperform a ritual with a piece of clothingfrom the diseased, most often a sock, andwhile forming a line using tongs11 over themin an upward and downward fashion sherepeats one of the short exorcist formulassuch as this:

Away, away, poganice,

into the depths of the sea,

that even in Bulgarian magic it was a tradition to ask for helpfrom a three religious priest (rabbin, Imam, Orthodox priest)during the rituals of healing.

9 There is a belief among the folk that there are 60 typesof rheumatism.

10 According to the analogy nine demons of disease, ninedoctors (hećim). In the folk tradition of Bosnia they are oftenrepresented by nine widows which symbolise nine ancientpriests of the Grand Mother. But, the emphasis is not on thegender but exclusively on the meaning of the number 9 whichis certainly demonstrated by the example from Romanianmagical tradition, (which is similar to Bosnian one in manyelements) in which there exists a belief that a person sufferingfrom a strong influence of black magic must visit nine priestswhich need to read prayers to the person.

11 Mašice (tongs) are a very important prop of everystravarka and they are a substitute for a magical cane whichwas carried by Didovi, Bogomil priests. They were used to takeembers from the fire and the embers were thrown into thewater with which they have a very important exorcist function.Before placing a piece of lead onto a spoon for melting,stravarka uses it to circle around the tongs three times. To ascared child "through tongs" is give a glass of water whichcontains lead.

into the heights of the sky,

into the red rocks!

Bosnian:

Bježi, bježi, poganice,

u morske dubine,

u nebeske širine,

u crvene stijene!

If she starts to yawn uncontrollablyduring this process, or if she feels that herblood pressure has increased, has beenstruck by some lethargy or if she startsbreathing heavily, then she concludes thatpoganica is hers. Usually then she says tothe diseased person or the person thatcame in her stead: "By god, we're talkingabout a poganica. She is mine!12" With thatshe is certain that she will manage to curethe disease. If the poganica is extremelystrong and if stravarka cannot fight itherself, although poganica is hers, she thenadvises the diseased to visit anotherstravarka so she too can perform exorcism,so that they can join forces and weaken thedisease, this will enable the first stravarka toexorcise the disease.

This supernatural connection thatstravarka can mechanically achieve over anitem is interesting, primarily through theclothes of the diseased, which in this caseexchanges the presence of the diseased,using a metal item (tongs) which she moves

12 In this narrative we see another ancient rule accordingto which it is believed that every folk healer (stravarka orgrandma), has power over certain demons of disease. Thatmonopoly is gained according to the claims of stravarka SafijeAlagić, for example curing fear, right of priority. Namely, thatstravarka which performs a ritual of lead melting to the child forthe first time, she always be more successful in healing thatperson than any other stravarka.

16

up and down whispering rhythmically amagical formula. Every time she passes thetongs down a piece of clothing she touchesa cabbage leaf and as soon as she touchesthe clothes again with the tongs she will bestruck by uncontrolled yawning. A similardemonstration of a mediums engagementfollowed by certain mechanical moves isevident in the ritual of melting lead.Rhythmic movement of the body ofstravarka left-right, while at the same timeshe covers her forehead (with her left hand),i.e. her "star" by which she is protectingherself from attacks by evil spirits or energy,she is actually practicing ancient elements ofBosnian shamanism, preserved only infragments. Repeating rhymed magicalverses she slowly brings her consciousnessinto a hypnotic state similar to a trance,whereby drowsiness occurs followed byfrequent yawning and sometimes byappearance of tears.

One of the main characteristics of folkmedicine was always its practicality, thetendency to always use those items whichare easily accessible and are usually locatedin the vicinity of the person that performshealing. Magical ritual of calming down Turthrough touching of the black snail, usage ofmetal items, usually a knife, tongs, scissors,dog's skull, stem of nettle, cabbage leaves,etc. are the main features of ritual practiceclosely tied to nature and its elements,especially water and fire, on which theentire cult of healing is based on. Holdingthe tongs in her hand, i.e. a metal item, thestravarka is chasing away evil spirits whichaccording to traditional beliefs in Bosnia andHerzegovina, are extremely afraid of anymetal and they run hysterically from it. Evilspirits have a special aversion towardstongs13 which are used to touch fire andtake out coal lumps.

13 Mašice are also present in numerous folk beliefs andrituals in BiH. Once women in boarder parts in Cazin worked sohard in the field that they didn't manage to breast feed theirchildren and the milk in their bosom became "fried". Namely,

Exorcist rituals

Before starting any type of engagementstravarka wants to get an answer to thequestion how long the disease was present.If the diseased answers that it has beenpresent for a longer time she will concludethat the poganica is outdated and that it willbe more difficult to cure14. For the practiceof healing most stravarke choose leaves ofdanewort (Sumbuccus ebulus), probablybecause in Bosnian mythology it is claimedthat it is one of the oldest plants in theworld and is as such dedicated to the GrandMother, protector of all those who performhealing with magical formulas and herbs15.Besides danewort, black nightshade(Solanum nigrum L) is also used, whose folkname itself (the one that helps) reveals itsmagical healing ability. If stravarka cannotacquire these herbs, she will then usecabbage leaves. In any case during thehealing process nine leaves of these plantsare always used.

With the leaves of the chosen plantstravarka performs the following: keeps

when children are not nursing their mothers bosom regularly,because of the excess milk the breasts can become inflamedand then nursing is not recommended, since the milk gets sourbecause of inflammation i.e. it can contain inflammatory cells,so the women practiced nursing over tongs believing that theirstomachs won't get upset. Similarly, it could well be that mašicebecause of the metal they could have been used for coolingbreasts, which were painful, hard and tense, and by placingmetal on them they became relaxed. According to folk belieftheir sound chased evil spirits away from home. It is necessaryto differentiate maša from mašice. Maša is a big metal spoon,while mašice are actually a metal pincers. See picture.

14 According to the belief from Velika Kladuša, everydisease which is cured with magic is out dated if six months passsince it first appeared.

15 Among the Bosnian stravarke the Grand Mother hasbeen replaced by Hazrat Fatimah, sometimes even Hazrat Hava(Eve) which is regarded as the spiritual mother of those that usemagic for healing purposes. This is why a stravarka will utter afamiliar formula before commencing her work: "My dear HazratFatimah, my dear mother.".

17

them in a bouquet, and using all of them shepulls them down her leg, from the hip to thefoot. During this process she repeats aprayer from the Qur'an or a magicalformula, and usually both. It is consideredthat the most ideal result is achieved bycombining prayers Ihlas and exorcistformulas. If the patient is not present thenthe stravarka performs a blessing of theleaves of the chosen plant by repeating theformula, with this she transfers a part of herhealing powers, and she gives them to theperson which visited her to deliver them tothe diseased. Leaves processed in thismanner are placed on the diseased place alltogether at the same time or three times,three leaves. In the first instance thecompress of leaves stays on the body for 24hours and in the second case for 36 hours. Itis fastened to the body from evening untilmorning, from morning until evening, andthe third time, with the last three leaves,from evening until morning. The leaves areexchanged each time and new leaves areplaced in their stead.

In magical healing it is very important tofollow precise rules which are based on thesymbolic and mystic meaning, therefore thecabbage leaf needs to be turned upsidedown so that the steam stands on top andthe tip of the leaf downward, "since itshouldn't grow" because of the allusion thatin a similar manner the pain will go downfrom the diseased place down to the toes.Similarly, healing is always consist of threeséances in which one uses nine leaves ofplants (3x9 = 27), which corresponds to theday in the months cycle, i.e. Grand Mother.

Though at first glance one can get animpression that the process ofneutralisation of the disease demondepends solely on the exorcist formula andthe props which are present, in essence theydon't have any real power without theengagement of the person performing theritual. According to the accounts ofindividual stravarke from Zenica and Travnik

the secret of successful healing is based onthe ability of the stravarka to fully focus onthe work, which brings her concentration tothe max, and creates suitable conditions forthe transfer of consciousness into anotherreality, in the state of trance. Physicalreactions such as deep breathing, yawning,appearance of tears, headaches, feeling ofanxiety and restlessness, are manifestationsof this unusual state16. In that state herpower achieves culmination and then thestravarka is capable of imposing her willover the evil spirit.

While in such a transcendental state avery important role in healing is played bymetal items (knife, scissors, needles)through which the power of stravarka ischannelled. If the diseased feels metastaticpain, from the hip to the feet, then thestravarka moves mašice over those bodyparts, always in the direction of the toes17.As soon as she reaches the patients toeswith the prop, she never makes a returnmove of the prop along the body, insteadshe moves it away from the body and startsmoving it along the leg from the startingposition - from above towards the toes.Mašice are, without a doubt a magical toolwith which the stravarka performsmanipulation over the disease demon,chasing it always towards the feet, so thatpoganica can exit the body of the diseasedfrom under the fingernails on the toes. Asure sign that the demon of disease isexiting the body, is the one when it startsknocking, crawling under the nails. But, ifthe diseased feels pain which mostresembles a pricking pain, then the diseasecan return. The exorcist ritual is considered

16 An informant which participated in one of the exorcistséances, later claimed that she would never perform suchrituals and bare such torture. Stravarke themselves admit thatexorcism damages and bothers them, both physically andmentally.

17 Because of the belief that poganica runs from thehuman body beneath the nails on the toes, one would alwaysbring a sock of the diseased if he is personally not capable ofarriving.

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to be successful if the poganica is notreturning upwards i.e. into the body partfrom which it has been exorcised. If the painreturns for some reason, then the patientmust change his healer.

During the entire treatment theattention is focused towards the direction ofexorcism, from above to bellow, in thedirection of earth (Tur, Grand Mother). But,it is not the only form of transmission, thereis also a possibility that the stravarka, if sheis skilled or perhaps asked to (paid) from athird party, can direct the disease demon toa specific person, in order to causeaggression and magical attack.

If the treatment is performed above apatients piece of clothing instead of hisbody, then the stravarka suggests that hisunderpants be brought, so that she could"utter" on that "substitute" during theentire length of the leg. This rule confirmsthe belief that men in a higher percentagefall ill from poganica, compared to women.It is possible to presume that the poganica,female demon, attacks men more often andnežit or udarac, male demon, attacksfemales more frequently.

According to a standard procedure theexorcist treatment lasts between 10 and 15minutes. If after the first ritual the diseasedfeels a relief i.e. that the pain has movedfurther down the leg, and is no longerreturning to the old place, in the next fewdays he will visit stravarka two more timesin order to repeat the treatment, despitefeeling better.

Udarac

According to another description ofhealing by stravarka, she uses a knife inorder to scare the demons of disease bytouching the diseased place and moving

down the patient's body uttering thisexorcist formula:

If it is in N nine udaraca - nine brothers,

let there be eight from nine,

from eight let there be seven,

from seven let there be six,

from six let there be five,

from five let there be four,

from four let there be three,

from three let there be two,

from two let there be one,

from one let there be none!

Exit, udarče, from 88 joints,

from 77 nerves,

from the head,

from the neck,

from the arms,

from the heart and legs!

Bosnian:

Ako je u N devet udaraca - devet braće,

neka bude od devet osam,

od osam sedam, od sedam šest,

19

od šest pet, od pet četiri,

od četiri tri, od tri dva,

od jedan - nijedan!

Izađi, udarče, iz 88 zglobova,

iz 77 živaca, iz glave, iz vrata,

iz ruku, iz srca i iz nogu!

She then starts lightly hitting the patientwith the knife on the head, neck, arms andlegs following these moves with thefollowing words of the formula:

Exit into the earths depths,

into the heights of the sky,

into the depths of the sea,

over hundred fields,

over hundred forests,

behind nine hills,

into a desolate land,

in an unknown landmark;

where the dog doesn't bark,

where the candle doesn't burn,

where the cradle is not rocking,

where the axe is not cutting.

Exit into a place which is not mentioned,

on Kavdag and onto Jablan-mountain!

Bosnian:

Izađi u zemaljske širine,

u nebeske visine,

u morske dubine,

preko sto polja, preko sto šuma,

za devet brda, u pustu zemlju,

u neznanu među;

gdje pas ne laje,

gdje svijeća ne gori,

gdje se bešika ne ljulja,

gdje sjekira ne sječe.

Izađi u mjesto koje nije spomenuto,

na Kavdag i u Jablan-planinu!

In the mentioned formula the exorcist istalking to the male disease demons, whichare nine in number, calling them brothers,with which we are explicitly returning to theoriginal term of the disease, i.e. nežit18. Andof course the realization that not onlywomen were included in the healing of thisdisease but also men, though in a smallernumber. Though according to some folktales, like the one about the Shaitan, melon,woman and man, women are considered tobe more skilled in verbal communicationwith the supernatural world, men areperceived as stronger in withstanding more

18 Another folk name for poganica is very interesting and itis - bogavica, which undoubtedly stems from the name Bogomil.

20

difficult engagements, especially inexorcism. It is possible that for this reasonthis disease is named after male and femalenames, so that both sexes can cure itsuccessfully, chasing it away with magicalformulas. We should add to that that nežitas a hermaphrodite reveals its extremelylarge strength and power of transformationbut also hiding, since literally, according tofolk descriptions it travels or runs throughthe body, therefore the only method to cureit is by using exorcism19.

Sijerma

When one is curing poganica in theneck, shoulders or hand, then it is calledexorcism of Sijerma. Praying in Bosnian andnot Arabic, the stravarka uses a knife bladeturned downward, she moves it from theshoulders to the fingers using the followingformula against it, whose significance incounting backwards is to achieve an effectof distancing and weakening the power ofthe demon:

Sijerma has nine children,

let there be eight from nine,

from eight let there be seven,

from seven let there be six,

from six let there be five,

from five let there be four,

19 Among the Bosnian folk it was once believed that nežitcan be summoned in an unusual way. Namely, if a comb fromthe house would be loaned to the neighbour or someone elsewho doesn't live in that house, it could happen that nežit comesinto the house with the comb. In this belief an idea ispronounced in which nežit lives in the human hair and throughit, it can cross over onto other people.

from four let there be three,

from three let there be two,

from two let there be one,

from one let there be none!

Bosnian:

U Sijerme devetero djece,

od devetero - osmero,

od osmero - sedmero,

od sedmero - šestero,

od šestero - petero,

od petero - četvoro,

od četvoro -troje,

od troje - dvoje,

od dvoje - jedno,

od jedno - nijedno!

She repeats the procedure three times.The patient visits stravarka three days intotal for the treatment. If his hand goesnumb after one of the séances, whichmeans that the poganica has left the body.

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maša mašice

Metalja

Cataract but also other eye relateddiseases (Conjunctivitis) were calledpoganica i.e. her special name metalja. It isbelieved that it returns the way it came. Inthe healing ritual a prop is moved threetimes over the eye - garlic or small wormwhich are found in cow dung (manure),three times during three days. With cleanhands one cleans a clove of garlic, and withthe sharper part of the clove one moves itover the cataract from the left to the right,and from the right to the left. If we aretalking about another disease, the clove isused near the inside boarders of the eyelid

until tears appear, since it is believed that allimpurities will exit through the tears(metalja). While doing this, this exorcistformula is repeated:

Here comes a hen with nine chicks,

with yellow feet.

They jump on metalja,

they seize her with their claws.

It was dawn - they say.

Afternoon - let it be, they say.

Dusk - she is gone.

When in the grove - three girls combing,

combing black wool,

combing white wool,

combing red wool,

from my eyes metalja

and clots they remove!

Bosnian:

Otud ide kokoš sa devetero pilića,

žutijeh nogu.

Skočiše na metalju,

svu je razgrabiše,

na noktima i na nogama.

Sabah - kažu bila je.

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maša mašice

Metalja




with yellow feet.





Dusk - she is gone.


combing black wool,

combing white wool,

combing red wool,



Bosnian:


žutijeh nogu.


svu je razgrabiše,



21

maša mašice

Metalja




with yellow feet.





Dusk - she is gone.


combing black wool,

combing white wool,

combing red wool,



Bosnian:


žutijeh nogu.


svu je razgrabiše,



22

Podne - kažu neka je.

Ićindija - nema je.

Kad u gaju – tri cure vlače,

mrku vunu vlače,

bijelu vunu vlače,

crvenu vunu vlače,

sa mojijeh očiju metalju i krvavicusvlače!

Stravarka can cure metalja in otherways such as using red silk and a mirror.With these props she carefully touchesmetalja and "removes it" making the abovedescribed movements20.

20 Another representative segment of Bosnian shamanismis discovered in the use of individual parts of the animal whichconstitute a specific prop, as well as an animal totem of thestravarka. Dog's skull, according to folk belief, can exchange itspresence with which it is pretended that the stravarka iscapable of transferring a part of her power into the skull andlater act through it as a medium. In the past numerous Bosnianhomes owned one or more dog skulls "for healing" and this iswhy they were stored inside houses. It was unquestionablybelieved that they possess secretly accumulated power ofhealing once the stravarka has uttered exorcist formulas, fromher magical pool, a few times. The skull was usually used bybeing placed on the diseased place or it was moved down thebody, imitating rhythmical moves which the stravarka makes.

NOTE

A frequent eye disease (herpes corneae) is well knownamong the folk. It comes to the cornea in the form of whitebubbles, which decompose quickly in herpes ulcers, and if nottreated frequently, they form into a white speckle (leukoma) oreven causes inflammation of the entire eye (panophtilmitis).Since the same bubbles appear without any cause, peopledenote them as poganica, since they believe as a mysteriousevil force. GZM (Sarajevo, 1900, p.p. 143)

According to the writings of Ivan Zovko "poganica orsijerma is hard to define. Since the diagnosis for suddenappearance of puncture like pain, which can reappear, is usuallyidentified with gout (Arthritis deformans). That's why an initialstep is to cure it as a cold. If the pain doesn't subside from sucha therapy, it is considered that it is poganica, which is caused by

an old wound or black magic (which is more probable, they say)therefore magical healing is undertaken" - "Prikružnici" GZM !!

(Sarajevo, 1890, p.p. 317).

folk medicine of bosnia and herzegovina

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